(5 April 2022) US stocks fell today after the normally dovish Fed Governor Lael Brainard sounded a lot more hawkish by committing to a rapid selling of QE assets from its balance sheet in order to tackle inflation.   No matter how much the Fed may want to keep the stock market bubble going, it seems it can no longer ignore its mandate of price stability during this midterm election year.  The cycle of monetary tightening which began at the last FOMC meeting on March 16 will only accelerate now as markets are anticipating 50 point hikes at the next two Fed meetings in May and June.

While stocks rallied strongly in the second half of March, it could be a different story as we start the month of April.  This week features a rare six-planet alignment that significantly elevates downside risk.  The Mars-Saturn conjunction was exact in longitude on Monday when stocks surprisingly finished higher.  However, some additional fallout is possible since they will be in exact declination on Wednesday.  These are both malefic planets which do have a bearish bias in conjunction although we should note that they do not always coincide with selling.  Whether sentiment will get bearish often depends on their situation relative to other planets.

Their more negative sides are more likely to manifest this week since they are aligned with the Lunar Nodes, Rahu and Ketu.  Mars casts its forward square aspect to Rahu while Saturn casts its backward square aspect to Ketu.  While this alignment is exact early this week if we use the True Node measurement, the Mean Node is more than a degree difference and postpones the Mars-Rahu square until Thursday, while the Saturn-Ketu square isn’t exact until April 19.

What is particularly unusual about this alignment is that is closely coincides with another conjunction, that of Jupiter and Neptune. Jupiter is a bullish planet and its conjunction with Neptune (exact on April 12) is normally a positive influence on sentiment.  Since these two conjunctions are almost simultaneous, it is tempting to think they may at least partially cancel each other out.

That may well be the case and yet we have to recognize that even the bullish potential of Jupiter-Neptune could be disrupted or subverted in some way by the 120-degree/5th house aspect from Ketu, the South Lunar Node.  Ketu is considered a spiritual, anti-materialist planet so that it cannot be considered a neutral influence.  Therefore, the Ketu influence on Jupiter-Neptune slightly increases the probability of a negative market outcome in early April.

Overall, there is definitely some downside risk this week, even if it the outcome is less predictable than we would like.  We can also see that Saturn will cast its full-strength 3rd house aspect (=60 degrees) on Mercury later in the week.  This is also seen in the semi-parallel aspect in the latitudes (i.e. Mercury (0 27) is about halfway between the latitude of the Sun(0) and Saturn (0 57).  This is usually bearish and perhaps more so since Mercury will be in Pisces, its sign of debilitation. So even if a major decline is averted, there is a decent chance for some selling on this Mercury-Saturn aspect on Thursday.  Given all these aspects involving malefic planets, the month of April looks unlikely to be smooth sailing for financial markets.

For more details, check out my weekly subscriber newsletter which is published every Saturday afternoon (EST).   In addition to reviewing the key planetary and technical influences on US and Indian stocks for the short and medium term, I also provide an astrological analysis of potential upcoming moves in currencies, gold and oil.

Photo Credit: Stuart Isett